The National Cathedral

Looking north, the humble All Hallow's (all dry laid) amphitheatre walls lead the eye up to a crescendo of magnificence and architectural wonder: this is the tenth largest Cathedral in the world.

We are visiting Washington DC this week. The National Cathedral was on our list yesterday. Quite magnificent. 

I looked up one of the four massive columns supporting the largest vault over The Crossing of the Cathedral and was surprised to discover that it appeared to have a noticeable twist near the top! Could this be evidence of the 2011 earthquake?

I've drawn a red line to show the orientation of the twist

I read later on a sign that... 'At least once during Washington National Cathedral’s 83 year construction period the Cathedral withstood a magnitude 4.3 earthquake without being damaged. The year was 1969 and the earthquake’s source was nearby West Virginia. By contrast, the power of the 2011 earthquake released hundreds of times more energy than the 1969 earthquake, producing significant forces throughout the building and rotating some of the topmost Cathedral stones: pinnacles on the towers and buttress piers.'

On another sign I read that the 2011 earthquake did 25 million dollars damage to the Cathedral which they were still raising money for to be able to complete the repairs.

South Side

North Side

Two photos Mary took showing how very different an angle the 7th (last) buttress has than the six others on the North side.  And by comparison, the photo of south side of the Cathedral, which shows the 7 buttress angles all parallel, which presumably indicates the 7th north side buttress is not symmetric with its southern counterpart, again presumably evidence of damage caused by the 2011 earthquake?

Miniature or not ?

I'd like to have miniature margarita here some day...      When I get smaller

Fencerows - Stone, Hedge, or a Fence?

Sometimes its a blurry line between a hedgerow and a fencerow. Is it a hedge, a fence or what ?

The moss can make stone fencerow look like a hedgerow.

The hedge and the stones can sometimes be equal parts of a fencerow

Or the stone can win out completely

Or it can be a battle

And the stones lose, and a fencerow gets completely overgrown and becomes an offence. 

Keeping it in.

Who said, ' It's not good to keep things in ' ? 

While it may be true for creativity or feelings of love and gratitude, there are a lot of things that are probably better left unsaid, unexpressed and definitely unvented.

Necessity is often the mother of unventing.

Anyway, building a dry stone enclosure is a good way of seeing to it that things are 'contained', a way of keeping your cool and not just throwing things around and getting angry. 

It's satisfying to have a place to go back to and say, 'This is kind of a neat cozy place to hang out, and yes, we built this instead of wasting our time getting upset and complaining about what others did or didn't do!

Let It Go

The ancient strategy game of Go originated in Japan over 3000 years ago. Yesterday, in Korea a computer AlphaGo, with high artificial intelligence made world history, by beating one of the best Go players in the world Lee Se-dol, to make it (the computer) the third best player in the world.

Is this a good thing? I don’t know.

The rules of the game are not unlike walling. It starts with an empty flat area. Each player has an effectively unlimited supply of pieces (called stones), one taking the black stones, the other taking white. The main object of the game is to use your stones to form borders and territories by surrounding vacant areas. (or capture your opponent's stones by completely surrounding them)

Players take turns, placing their stones, with Black playing first. Once played stones are not moved. However they may be captured, in which case they are removed from the board, and kept by the capturing player. 

Granted, this sounds like very unfriendly walling. 

It's much nicer to place those stones to make borders and hedge rows to contain sheep or other livestock, and not just covet other waller’s stones. 

Better yet to make sunken gardens and walled enclosures with those stones. Definitely it’s best not to go around stealing your neighbours stones!

The point is, like walling, the game takes a lot of practice and requires a high skill level to do it well. You gotta know the correct place where every stone should go. Otherwise what you're enclosing will get away.

And too, the thing is, the defeat of Lee Se-dol not only spells the beginning of the end of human dominance in the tactical game of Go ( one of the last vestiges of intellectual gaming prowess for mankind ) but possibly, by association with walling, it marks the end of our being able to build dry stone walls without fear of one day being replaced by a machine.

Symposium Recap

Below is a very good summary of the 2016 Stone symposium event in California put out as a news letter to all the Stone Foundation's members. Enjoy and think about joining.

Greetings  It seems like just yesterday that we were gearing up for the Stonework Symposium XIV that took place in San Francisco and Gualala on the Mendocino Coast. The Symposium Team hit the ground running in the new year, as we had embarked on a journey into unknown territories and there was no turning back. We spent many a late night pulling together all the details that make these special events happen, anxiously watching registration. And then the delight of seeing old friends and making new friends at the Rocknockers Rendezvous, the magic had begun.  The Stonework Symposium XIV turned out to be an enormous success. In all, 133 participants attended various lectures, toured the sights of San Francisco, braved the drive up the Mendocino coast during El Nino, and participated in amazing workshops. We succeeded in completing another legacy project, in which the Gualala Arts Center will be very proud of for a very long time. Led by the Dry Stone Conservancy under the instruction of Master Waller Neil Rippingale with the assistance of Michael Murphy, participants of the workshop completed 80 plus feet of dry stacked retaining wall. The Dry Stone Conservancy introduced 'LEVEL 1' certification to the west coast for the first time, and many participants tested and passed their 'LEVEL 1' certification. Participants of the Fabrication workshop under the leadership of Kyle Schlagenhauf, Julien Carmellino, and Matt Driscoll completed a dry laid stone stair assembly which provides a grand entry into the newly renovated Redwood Grove event area. Now that the dust has settled, the mud has washed off, our friends and colleagues have drifted back to their homes all over North America and Europe. What is it that makes the Stonework Symposium and workshops so special? It’s the people and the friendships that are made that endure the test of time, very much like a well-built stone wall or finely cut stone. For those of you who could not make it to this year's Stonework Symposium, and for those of you who did, talk of the 15th Stonework Symposium, which will be held in 2017, has begun. Curious about what the Dry Stone Conservancy is offering this spring? Click herefor a full description and schedule. Stonework Symposium Team  Zach Johnson, Nicholas Tomkins, John Mills, Amber Schlagenhauf San Francisco Gualala Arts Center Let the games begin - the LithOlympics tests the skills of the Stonemason as they competed against each other in games of agility, strength, and strategy. Tomas Lipps perfecting his form in a game of LIthobolos. The competition was fierce during the Wheelbarrow Steeplechase as contestants maneuvered the obstacles of this challenging course, as they are racing against the clock. And the crowd goes wild, as Zach Johnson claims the title of Wheelbarrow Champion 2016, beating the time of his competitors. WORKSHOPS Positive and Negative Spaces, dry stone sculpture with John Shaw Rimmington. Figure Carving with John Fisher & Letter Carving with Karen Sprague. A permanent installation created during the Pebble Mosaic Workshop instructed by Kevin Carman. Dry Stone Walling Workshop led by Neil Rippingale with the assistance of DSC certified waller Michael Murphy. 'LEVEL 1' certification, free standing test walls, completed by Ray Haas and Robert Faraone. Fabrication workshop led by Kyle Schlagenhauf, Julien Carmellino, and Matt Driscoll. A very special THANK YOU to our Presenters: Tomas Lipps, Edwin Hamilton, David Williams, Richard Rhodes, Edward Westbrook, Coburn Everdale, Bobby Watt, Patrick McAfee, Jane Wooley. Instructors: Neil Rippingale, Michael Murphy, Alexandra Morosco, Karin Sprague, John Shaw Rimmington, Kevin Carman, John Fisher, Kyle Schlagenhauf, Matt Driscoll, Julien Carmellino. Backup support: Doug E Bell, John Di Bona, Mark Ricard, Mario Tomasek, Dave Irving, Cody Paque, Nick Groves, Shannon Hughes, Mimi Lipps, Kathryn Gleason,  Amanda Stinson, Peter Mullins, Dave Susalla, Roland Staughton, Karen and Billy Hay, and Jordan Keyes. MEMBERSHIP Increasing the number of members in the Stone Foundation is vital to its survival. Because this newsletter has been broadcast to the entirety of the membership regardless of status, there is a chance that you yourself might be a LAPSED MEMBER (?) whether for a few months, a few years, or more.  If you ARE a lapsed member, redemption is at hand: please (re)join the Stone Foundation as we progress into a new era (the neo-neolithic):  Click here to renew your membership. Your support will be welcome. (And Issue #XIV of STONEXUS Magazine, released December 2015, will be sent to you immediately.)  Do you know of someone who should be a member? Tell them about us, show them a copy of STONEXUS.